Gun companies make too much money off it.
It is protected by the huge profits of the A-15, the mods, and ammo sales--the #1 profit center of the guns and ammo industry.
That's what this is about, nothing else.
Your "freedoms" were never jeopardy, and will never be in jeopardy. England is not coming to take back Boston. Jack-booted thugs and Ruby Ridge is mostly mythology, scary stories libertarians tell their children.
The notion that we need to be armed to keep the Government in check is false -- we are the Government. The Government is who? People who live in your town, go to your church, have kids on your little league team... they are not your enemy. They are you (us). Both sides, Dems and GOPs engage in this Government as the Other thinking for political posturing. Government workers go home, cook dinner, watch TV. They don't sit around thinking about how to take away your Freedoms. The NRA does however sit around thinking of ways to make you think the Government may one day come after your "freedoms"...
A consumer consumption driven world power is not going to saw off its own legs by engaging in some police state "gun grab" -- that's ******* idiotic. But making people think that some day the big bad Gov will knock on their door and take away their "freedoms"... Believe me, they want you free to buy, buy, buy... bigger clips mean you must buy and consume more ammo... $$$$$$
The 2nd Amendment is as obsolete as the 3rd. (do you even know what that is).
But the 2nd Amendment is never going away because the guns and ammo industry will never allow that. If people realized they only need guns for hunting and home defense -- sales would dip, gun corps stocks would go down, and people would spend their money on stuff they actually need...